Chapter 80
EIGHTY
In a small country with few people there will be in proportion many of exceptional merit and of competency but few vacancies for their services.
If people consider their death to be important, they will hesitate to go to distant countries. Though there be boats and carts they will have no occasion to use them. Though there be armor and weapons, there will be no occasion to don them. Let people return to the spirit of the olden days when they used knotted cords for their records; then they will take delight in simple food, be proud of their cheap clothes, content with their dwellings, and rejoice in their customs.
Neighboring states may be so close to each other that one can see them with their eyes, and their cocks and dogs can be mutually heard, but people will, have no desire to go and come even to the end of their lives.